For the past few years Rachel Hannan’s work has focussed on landscapes of the Blue Mountains and NSW; often alla prima, sometimes en plein air, and more considered studio works. She has recently begun portrait painting. In 2019 she was a finalist in the Naked and Nude Art Prize with her portrait of local artist Robert Brain and many would have recognised Megan Benson in the portrait she painted for the Blue Mountains Portrait Exhibition.

Hannan has also spent this year producing work for her second solo show at Day Gallery which will run from the 9-25 November.

Many of these new works are a merging of her new passion for portraits and interiors with her enduring representation of the Blue Mountains wilderness. These new works blend dramatic vistas with everyday domestic scenes of families and pets. The result is surreal and magical.

“I paint what is around me; landscapes, people, interiors and imagined places made up of combinations of these things. I use colour and strong, rhythmic brushwork to express how these things make me feel, both in the moment and after periods of reflection. My work is sometimes spontaneous and made in one sitting or can take months of layering with glazed and impasto paint.”

Feature Stories

Times are tough: climate crisis, rampant inequality, and Pauline Hanson is still a thing! So a bunch of comedians are coming together to save the world, one seven-minute stand-up set at a time. An Inconvenient Comedy Show is a one-hour charity show coming to Crowded in the Vaults at Pilgrim Bar, Federation Wharf, as part of this year's exciting Melbourne Fringe program. #InconvenientComedy @InconvenientComedy #melbournefringe @melbournefringe @melbfringe #melbfringe